The Guardian said Wednesday that it will no longer post on X, saying it is “a toxic media platform” and “its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”

The news organization does not, however, appear to be deleting or locking its accounts there. Instead, The Guardian’s X accounts — it has more than 40 active ones with a combined 20 million followers — now say in their profiles that they are “archived.”

It is difficult for major news organizations to make clean breaks with X. In its article, the Guardian noted:

X users will still be able to share our articles, and the nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages.

Our reporters will also be able to carry on using the site for news-gathering purposes, just as they use other social networks in which we do not officially engage.

The Guardian would not comment on the company’s reasons for leaving the accounts up. But doing so means the company can go back to X in the future if it wants to without having to regain the followers who remain. Also, if the accounts were deleted, an X user could claim the handles, and could even try to “verify” them by paying $8 a month for a blue checkmark. (X says it will take down misleading and deceptive accounts.)

X’s checkmark policy has shifted frequently since Musk bought the platform in 2022. A blue check no longer necessarily signifies authenticity, as it did in the pre-Musk era. The Guardian’s accounts currently have the gold checkmark and square profile picture denoting that they are “official organization account[s] through Verified Organizations.” Many news organizations, including Nieman Lab, received gold checkmarks for free and without asking in 2022, but there’s also no guarantee that they are permanent. X removed the gold checkmark The New York Times’ main account last year. The New York Times now has a blue checkmark on X, but a company spokesperson told me the company isn’t paying for it and didn’t ask for it; in April, blue checkmarks began to appear on some accounts for free.

In a memo to staff, Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner laid out further guidance on how Guardian journalists should use X posts in published work:

We do occasionally embed tweets in our articles and we have seen this become less stable and less useful as an experience for our readers. Please avoid embedding X posts unless necessary to the story. This could include posts containing video or images to which we don’t otherwise have access, though where we later add our own video and/or images, the embed should be removed.

For X posts that are text-only, or where we do not the images, do not embed. Instead, add the quote, or a paraphrased version, and hyperlink back to the post.

NPR and the main account of PBS stopped posting on X last year after the platform labeled them “U.S. state-affiliated media.” Their accounts remain up but inactive. (It now appears that the “state-affiliated media” labels have been removed.)